Above is the A-Bolt Hunter model from
the Browning A-Bolt Shotgun owner's manual. It is finally back for 2011.

Browning
Arms has confirmed that yes, the A-Bolt Slug Gun is scheduled to return,
appearing in Browning's 2011 catalog. The original A-Bolt was announced
at the SHOT Show of 1994, but didn't make its way into the market until
much later, Spring of 1996. It was offered then with a 1:32 rate of twist
barrel, slow by today's standards. Back then, I found the A-Bolt 12 gauge
to be the first slug gun I ever owned that looked like, felt like, and
shot like a real rifle. With 2-3/4 in. Winchester-BRI ammunition, it was
a legitimate MOA 100 yard gun for me, astonishingly good for a slug gun.

The
A-Bolt was no where near a commercial success. Priced at $800, it was
more than double the price of many other bolt action slug guns of the
day, such as the goose-gun actioned Marlin 512 Slugmaster
and the Mossberg 695, the 695 also formed from a shotgun action (Maverick
Model 95). Back then, a new Marlin could be had for $225 or so. To be
blunt, I loathed mine. That has been the case with most slug guns I've
evaluated over the years. Most have handled like clubs, they look like
clubs, and have triggers that break like clubs. It is the kind of club
you really don't want to join.

The
Browning A-Bolt was the very rare, refreshing exception to that. The Hunter
model was easy on the eyes, shouldered like a rifle, and shot like a rifle.
Yet, a couple of things worked against the A-Bolt, the general despise
of the slug gun in general and the notion that blowing a Foster slug through
a pump gun was good enough. Ammunition was also in its primitive stages,
compared to today. The typical high-performance 12 gauge sabot
left the muzzle at 1350 fps or so, offering substantial recoil due to
its mass along with a snowball from hell trajectory as a bonus. When excellent
product is no longer offered, it is most often for the same reason: the
sales don't support its continuation. Several people did eventually get
how good the A-Bolt was, however, with new or close to new fully rifled
Hunter examples regularly selling in the $1500 range or so.

Times
have changed, though. Slug loads are better than ever, with newly designed,
proprietary sabots and proprietary specialty propellants to go with them.
Right now, the Winchester Partition Gold 12 gauge slug (SSP123) has a
published muzzle velocity of 2000 fps. You won't get quite that with the
shorter than lab-length 22 inch and 24 inch barrels found on most slug
guns, but it is still a tremendous jump over the typical loads of fifteen
years ago. Slugs no longer need be relegated to the hoary hit a
pie plate at 25 yards type of thinking, as it was with a Foster
slug being shot off the bead of a Model 12. Today, they are 165 yard center
of the body hold big game rifles and under ideal conditions, 200 yard
rifles with little drama.

Two
recently tested slug guns, both in twenty gauge, have borne this out:
the new Savage 220F ($519 MSRP in matte / synthetic) and the Ithaca Deerslayer
II ($899 MSRP, blued / fancy black walnut). The Ithaca Deerslayer II is
already available in 12 gauge, as is the fluted heavy-barrel Deerslayer
III, and Savage has their new 212F slug gun in production. Based on the
interest in these two models, the slug gun market has been rejuvenated.

The
A-Bolt shotgun is scheduled to be released in 12 gauge only, apparently
three models, with MSRP in the $1000 - $1200 arena. Naturally, all of
this is in the very, very early stages so whether there will be SHOT show
versions is unknown, and your guess is as good as mine as to actual availability,
street prices, and so forth. No one likes to wait, but I wouldn't expect
production articles to be available before second or third quarter of
2011.

Past
performance isn't necessarily indicative of future results, as they say,
but the A-Bolt was best of breed back in 1996 as perhaps too many people
belatedly realized. Fifteen years later, it looks to be back and one of
the big differences is that ammunition has finally caught up to exploit
the potential of the rifle. It will be fun to see.